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AN ORATION 







DELIV^ED BEFORE THE 



JEFFERSON SOCIETY 



OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, 



4^ 



On the 13th. of April 1843, 



BY J. C. RUTHERFOORD, 
of Richmond. 



Published by order of the Jefferson Society. 



CHARLOTTESVILLE : 

JAMES ALEXANDER— PRINTER. 

1843. 



AN ORATION 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



JEFFERSON SOCIETY 



OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, 



On the 13th. of April 1843, 



BY J. C. RUTHERFOORD, 
of Richmond. 



Published by order of the Jefferson Society. 



CHARLOTTESVILLE : 

JAMES ALEXANDER— PRINTER. 
1843. 



.7ff7 



University of Virginia, April 17, [S43. 
Sir, 

The Jefferson Society have appointed us a committee to request 
for publication a copy of your able and eloquent address. In the dis- 
charge of our duty it gives us pleasure, as representatives of the So- 
ciety, to announce to you their high appreciation of the excellences 
and their cordial approbation of the sentiments contained in it ; and, 
while we feel assured that the judgment of the public will corroborate 
the opinion of your fellow-members, we cannot too strongly request, 
in our individual capacity, a ready compliance with our desires. 

Accept, dear sir, the thanks of the Society; to which permit us to 
add the very high regard of your 

Friends and ob't. servants, 

Wm. M. COOKE, 
Wm. F. GORDON, Jr., 
E. W. MASSENBURG, 

To Mr. J. C. RUTHERFOOKD. 



University of Virginia, April 20, 1843. 
Gentlemen : 

I have delayed to answer your note of the 17lh. inst,, doubtful 
what reply to give you. The address, which I delivered on the 13th. 
of this month, was., with no view to its publication, hastily prepared 
under the pressure of other duties which occupied nearly the whole of 
my time ; and I much doubted the propriety of acceding to your polite 
request. But the desire of the Society, of which you so flatteringly 
assure me, and the solicitations of my too partial friends have induced 
me to disregard the dictates of my own judgment. I accordingly 
send you, herein, a copy of my speech, which I place at your disposal. 
Let me assure you, gentlemen, of the high graiification I experience, 
from the approbation of those, for whom my esteem is so exalted. 
With much respect, I am 

Very truly, yours, 

JOHN C. RUTHERFOORD. 
To Messrs. Wm. M. Cooke, Wm. F. Gordon Jr, E. W. MassenbukG' 



ORATION 



This day, one century since, Jefferson was born. The 
people of these States, should abandon, for a time, the bitter 
conflicts of party, and as one grateful nation, unite to honor 
the memory of a patriot. It peculiarly becomes us, here, 
reaping the fruits of his patriotism, here, on the soil of his 
nativity, and close by the sacred spot where his remains re- 
pose, to commemorate such an occasion. 

Bright was the destiny of Jefferson ! From first to last, 
his country was the idol of his soul ; her gTo'ry, the goal of 
his ambition. In youth, he toiled for her freedom ; in the 
evening of his days, he ceased not to labor for her prosperity. 
Exalted the meed of his career, and commensurate the honors 
which the world has awarded him. Esteemed abroad, among 
the first of our sages ; in the land of his birth, his wri- 
tings are the political Bible whence differing parties would 
derive their creeds. With the glory of his beloved country, 
his is interwoven ; and the monuments, which are her proud- 
est boast, proclaim his eulogy. Peace and happiness be to 
his spirit. 

He needs no praises here. They have been breathed in 
the language of a Webster ; and historians and biographers 
have recorded his deeds. To this audience, I will not dwell 
upon the well known incidents of his life. Let us rather 
turn our thoughts to those great princij les, which guided 
his course. With republican principles, iiis name is indisso- 
lubly connected ; and his fame is due to the efforts, which 
he made in their behalf. Their true bearing, we can study 
from the vantage ground of the nineteenth century. In his 
<lay, they were new and untried. Now, the lapse of years 
has more distinctly marked their character. Here, their trial 
has been fair, their success complete, and in other lands, they 
have extended their influence. Let us view their progress. 

Four score years ago, France groaned under the weight of 
an unlimited monarchy. Her people, enveloped in ignorance, 
and inured to servitude, dared not to question the most op- 
pressive decrees of their rulers. How stupendous the con- 
vulsions, which, since then, have rent her asunder ! We 
have seen the French, from an humble submission to consti- 
tuted authorities, and a holy veneration for time-honored 



usages, pass at once to the opposite extreme : and rejecting 
all restraint, rush madly on in the paths of revolution, up- 
rooting the established usages of their land, and aiming to 
remodel the whole fabric of society. Various the fluctuations 
of that grand revolution. Yet, amid all its inconsistencies, 
its changing dynasties, its bloody wars, and terrific massacres, 
freedom progressed. At the close of their memorable strug- 
gle, the combined powers of Europe could not subject the 
French people to their old constitution : nor does the human 
mind stand still, when the gloamings of truth have once struck 
brightly on its vision. Let the late astounding revolution 
of 1830 testify the progress of free principles in France. The 
consummate sagacity of Louis Phillippe can now scarce hold 
together the elements of monarchy ; and the arm of many an 
assassin has been raised against his life. 

Our own, has been pronounced the true parent of the 
French revolution. If so, it may well be said that our glo- 
rious struggle (to the success of which, the active intellect, 
the indomitable zeal, and ready pen of Jefferson so much 
contributed^ dates a new era in the history of man. 

France was but the centre of an earthquake, which em- 
braced all Europe in its heavings, and convulsed the world. 
The flame of liberty is not confined to France, during her 
revolution. It spreads in all directions, and " its sparks are 
struck from the collision of hostile armies and opposing in- 
terests." Close at hand, the Spaniards and the Portuguese 
rise against oppression. In Italy, the same spirit springs forth : 
and Greece, arousing from the sleep of centuries, bursts asun- 
der the fetters of the barbarian. The sternest despots retreat 
before the advancing tide of opinion. No jarring commotions 
have disturbed the tranquillity of Germany. Favored land ! 
Her learned men have stood forth the saviours of their coun- 
try. They have restrained the too hasty vehemence of the 
popular sentiment and induced the timely concessions of 
princes. Yet not the less complete, her bloodless revolution. 

To whatever people of Europe we look, we find that free 
principles have gained ground since our revolution, and still 
grow in favor with the multitude. 

And how is it with the isle of Albion ? Can it be that 
Britain, after so long and exhausting a crusade against free- 
dom in other climes, is herself pervaded with the spirit she 
has warred against ? It is even so. Numerous, the symptoms. 
You see not now the fervent loyalty, which, at the com- 
mencement of this century, characterized the English people. 
But mark in its place, the general excitement, the deep-seat- 
ed discontent, which is rite through the land. Witness the 
frequent risings of the laborers. Behold the rapid growth of 



5 

the radical party. Above all, reflect on the progress of 
chartism. Force cannot crush a body of men, whose petitions 
are signed by millions. The chartists demand radical re- 
forms ; and they must be satisfied, or a crisis is at hand. The 
rulers of England are encompassed with difficulties. A suf- 
fering and exasperated people cry to them for relief. The 
necessity is urgent. Yet they cannot afford it. A debt of 
nine hundred millions, rests an incubus on the land, and still 
grows more bulky ; while its annual interest increases at a 
rate, soon to outbalance the whole revenue of that far stretch- 
ing empire. The war against France aroused the first mur- 
murs by its intolerable burdens ; and the contagion of her ex- 
ample first excited a spirit of reform. The reformers have now 
grown to millions. New views of government are preva- 
lent ; and the descendants of an usurping bastard are no 
longer held divine. The strongest pillars of the British con- 
stitution are undermined and toppling ; and the whole edifice 
menaced with disruption. 

Ireland, too, is eager for freedom. England's might has 
crushed her frequeut uprisings. But the days of '98 are not 
forgotten. Sheridan, Curran and Grattan are green in the 
memories of their countrymen. They listen with delight to 
the bold declamation of O'Connell; and await the opportuni- 
ty to strike another blow for independence. 

But it were indeed, no easy task, to follow the progress of 
free principles in Europe during the last fifty years. They 
have struggled against the combined resistance of mighty 
iiionarchs trembling for their sceptres. In whatever Euro- 
pean clime the standard of freedom has been raised, Russia's 
" whiskered pandoors and her fierce hussars'' have rushed to 
uproot it. Austria and Prussia have ever lent their aid to the 
same vile purpose. And lamentable truth ! the vising flame 
of liberty has too frequently been smothered. By foreign 
force, a coward king was restored to rebellious Portugal ; a 
perfidious monster crowned in Spain ; and a hateful dynasty 
conferred on France. Thus Poland fell a sacrifice, and Kos- 
ciusko's efforts were in vain ; and thus Naples, Venice and 
Genoa succumbed to the holy alliance. Yet under all these 
discouraging circumstances, we can not doubt, that the 
principles for which Jefferson contended, have advanced in 
Europe with amazing rapidity. 

In our western hemisphere, removed afar from " leagued 
oppression" by the wide waters of the Atlantic, the benign 
radiance of our light soon diffuses itself in the surrounding 
gloom, and 

"Even the Spaniard's ihirst of gold and war 
Forgets Pizairo to shout Bolivar." 



6 

At the time of our revolution, the colonies of Spain were 
crushed to the earth by religious intolerance and politick 
despotism ; and the existence of South America was not felt 
in the civilized world. Now, free and independent States 
rear their heads throughout the whole length and breadth of 
that vast and fertile clime ; and with the happy change, the 
land of Columbus has emerged from darkness. Upon our 
borders the republic of Texas has arisen ; and in all direc- 
tions evidences of change strike upon our view. 

We can not then be mistaken. ( Since the day of Jefferson, 

I free principles have advanced in Europe and America, and 

are still making their way with an accelerating speed. 

Great the influence which they have already exerted ; and 

greater the consequences which they are yet to produce. 

There are those who deplore their progress. Many enter- 
tain a sacred reverence for the established customs and pre- 
vailing opinions of the " good olden times" of their forefath- 
ers. They regard with distrust all changes which clash with 
the prejudices of their education, and are startled by the bold- 
ness of those who would now abolish institutions which have 
withstood the ravages of twenty centuries. The same spirit 
has, in every age, cried out against reform and improvement. 
It persecuted the sturdy reformers of Europe, and our puritan 
forefathers with a blood-thirsty zeal ; it opposed, at first, the 
.\ brilliant discoveries of Newton, and imprisoned Galileo for 
\ proclaiming the true theory of the solar system. 
/ But no narrow prejudices were entertained by the expansive 
'mind of Jefferson. It was not his wont, to condemn or to 
approve, either because of novelty or antiquity. Reason 
was his only guide, and it led him to advocate, with his"^w"hole 
heart and soul, the democratic principle. And surely, unbi- 
ased reason rebels against the divine right of kings ; it is 
shocked at the injustice of systems, which rear, in courtly 
effeminacy, an imbecile race, to rule the destinies of nations ; 
it recoils, in surveying the past history of man, to behold the 
lives and happiness of countless millions wantonly sacrificed, 
to gratify the private feuds and unhallowed passions of sen- 
sual and unfeeling Neros ; and it deplores the human intel- 
lect, so long beaten prostrate by iron-heeled oppression. Lii 
all ages, the nature of man, and the capabilities of his mind, 
have been the same. Yet for whole centuries, under despo- 
tic dynasties, the world has been enveloped in an unbroken 
darkness of intellect. The feeble cries of fettered reason 
have been stifled by the hand of triumphant tyranny ; and 
the atmosphere of slavery has extinguished the fires of ge- 
nius, and disabled the expanding wings of thought and fancy. 
Under such blighting influences, how many noble spirits. 



with energies to gain a deathless glory, have, in servile toils, 
unconscious of their faculties, fulfilled their destinies, and 
sunk into the grave, in life and death unheeded and unknown ! 

" How many a rustic Milton has past by, 

Stifling the speechless longings of his heart, 

In unremitting drudgery and care !" 

* * * "How many a Newton, to whose passive ken 

Those mighty spheres that gem infinity, 

Were only specks of tinsel, fixed in heaven 

To light the midnights of his native town !" 

It is, I know, a favorite theory with some, that monarchi- 
cal governments are the most congenial to the development 
of mind. They point us to the numerous wits and scholars, 
who have flourished in the sun-shine of royal favor ; over- 
looking the fact, that the advantage of time is on the side of 
monarchy ; that the world has been for long ages ruled by 
kings, while republics have been few and short-lived. Yet 
we fear not to institute a comparison between the mighty ef- 
forts of mind which free institutions have never failed to 
develope, and the vaunted display of talent, which royal pa- 
tronage has elicited. Let us compare the utter darkness of 
the long ages of royal dominion, which preceded the rise, 
and succeeded the fall of liberty in Greece, to the lustrous 
splendor which illumed the age of the Grecian republic. 
Let us compare the fawning sycophancy of the Augustan 
poets, to the bold spirit of the Grecian bards ; and the pith- 
less translations and imitative strains of the Roman, to the 
daring originality of his Grecian master. Let us compare 
the light graces of Fenelon, Corneille, Racine and the school 
of authors, who flourished under the liberal encouragement 
of Louis XIV, to the deep philosophy, which the spirit 
of the French Revolution drew from Voltaire, Mon- 
tesquieu and Rousseau. Let us compare, in all lands, the 
cringing parasites, who have upheld the divine right of kings, 
with those lofty souls, who have ever led the van of the op- 
position. The names of the former have sunk into merited 
oblivion, while on the other hand, it may truly be said, that 
all the great orators whom the world lias produced, — De- 
mosthenes and Cicero among the ancients, — Mirabcau, in 
France, — Chatham, Erskine and Canning, in England, — 
Sheridan, Curran and Grattan, in Ireland, — and in our coun- 
try, Henry and Randolph have had the fires of their genius 
fanned by the breath of liberty, and earned their undying 
glory, in a manly contest against unjust exactions and tyran- 
nical usurpations. 

Viewed in its fairest aspect, the patronage of monarchs has 
been unstable and uncertain. An ill judged remark banish- 
ed Racine from the court of Louis ; and a suple wit and 



honied tongue have ever found more favor with the royal 
judge, than tlie unbending spirit of creative genius : while 
sublime philosophy and soul-stirring eloquence have always 
been exiled from the courts of princes. But how rarely has 
this patronage been displayed ? How few and sparsely scat- 
tered, in the long line of sovereigns, have been the fosterers 
of literary merit ? For every Augustus who has wisely sway- 
ed the sceptre, do I err in saying, that there have been hun- 
dreds of throned monsters, who have pandered their souls to 
lust and villainy ; and who, hating virtue, have outlawed all 
nobility of soul, and persecuted true merit with imprisonment 
and tortures? The two mightiest names of antiquity, the ri- 
val orators of Greece and Rome, dared to raise their voices 
against usurping ambition; and both were driven to an inglo- 
rious suicide by the relentless pursuit of the conquering des- 
pots. The wise and virtuous Seneca, victim to a tyrant's 
hatred, endured with philosophic firmness, the pangs of a 
cruel death ; and in the same dark era of proscription, the 
poet Lucan, (to use the nervous language of Tacitus) as his 
blood strearned, and his hands and feet grew cold, and hfe 
gradually departed from his extremities, yet with fervid soul, 
and intellect unclouded, recited forth the touching lines of his 
own poetry, until his last words were choked in death. It 
were indeed, melancholy to recount the long Ust of sages, 
who in ancient times have lived, under despotic rule, a life 
of suffering and persecution. Without tracing the picture 
in detail, and turning to more modern times, let the exile 
of Dante and Petrarch, — the unhappy distresses of the incar- 
cerated Tasso, — the pinching poverty and cruel necessities 
of Ariosto, Goldsmith and Dryden, — the unmerited disgrace, 
and neglected old age of the illustrious Bacon, — the trou- 
bled life and obscure death of Milton, — the banishment of 
Locke, — the imprisonment of Galileo, Selden, Savage and 
Johnson, and the famished spirits of Cervantes, Spencer, Ot- 
way and Fielding sufficiently attest the blighting influence 
which, monarchical governments have exercised upon the 
human mind. 

I will no longer dwell on this painful spectacle. In the 
place of kingly rule, Jefferson laboured to build up the sove- 
reignty of the great people ; and as the principles, which he 
espoused, have extended, a true impetus has at last been 
given to the energies of man. The smiles of princes no 
longer constitute the whole object of ambition. The people 
have suddenly risen into respect ; and to advance their inte 
rests and gain their applause, philosophers, poets, historians, 
orators and statesmen now exert their powers. The mass of 
mankind are awakening from their long lethargy. With 



eyes opened to juster views of tlieir own prerogatives, the 
degraded feelings of slaves have left them, and they have 
learned to respect their dignity as men. Hitherto unfelt 
emotions and noble aspirations have fired their souls. And 
what has been the resulting consequence ? An amazing de- 
velopment of thought, an unexampled extension of science 
and civilization. Arts, sciences and literature, religion, laws 
and government have changed their aspect. New sciences 
have sprung into being ; old, have, by startling revelations 
been changed into new ; and numberless useful inventions 
and happy discoveries have simultaneously burst forth, and, 
with a constellation's clustered splendour, thrown a diffuse 
light on every field of human enquiry. 

All history* shows, that freedom and knowledge are indis- 
solubly connected and mutually dependant : twin sisters, 
linked by nature, they have advanced, hand in hand, during 
the last half century, and still move on together. Nor need 
we fear that the destroying hand of the ruthless barbarian 
can ever consign the world to a second period of darkness : 
flames cannot destroy, nor oceans engulph the power of the 
press ; and a universal passion for the improvement of hu- 
manity, distinguishes the age from any which has preceded 
it. Man, after struggling, to and fro, amid various vicissi- 
tudes, in the dreary wilderness of ignorance and uncertainty, 
seems at last to have crossed the interminable wastes, so long 
barring his progress, and, as from Pisgah's height, beholds 
with joy a remote vista of the promised land. Nor is there 
danger that, bewildered again, he will Mindly tread the 
mazes he has left. For now, the true rays of light beam up- 
on his vision ; the path is clear, and his march is onward. 
Great our delight to look forward with confidence to the 
steady advance of freedom and truth in all coming time ! 
The stream of knowledge has at length surmounted the bar- 
riers, which have long checked its course, and broadens and 
deepens into a current of resistless force. Bright the pros- 
pects which glitter before our vision, as we gaze, with fancy's 
eye, upon its future progress, and, in the receding spaces of 
futurity, behold it moving ever with increasing flow, swelling 
into a noble river, with its leaping waves accompanied by 
freedom's genial breeze, and enriching the soil and multiply- 
ing the harvests of the human mind, as it rolls majestically 
onward to be merged in the ocean of time ! 

Gentlemen, we may not indulge any hope of the ultimate 
perfectibility of man. When we essay to comprehend nature 
in all its vastness, not only does our own boasted progress 
sink into insignificance ; but we feel that the highest attain- 
ments, which man may ever reach would scarce suffice to 



10 

constitute a drop in the great, unfathomable sea of knowledge. 
Yet, should not this very fact brighten the tints with which 
we gild the hori^zon of the future ? If all the advances which 
we have yet made, and all of which we can conceive, are as 
nothing to those which we may attain, how overwhelming to 
our little perceptions is the future which may be opening to 
man ? Its dazzling reality, the most glowing pictures of the 
poet's fancy would fail to convey ; and the golden dreams of 
the enthusiast would lose the semblance of visionary fanta- 
sies. If the barbarous Goth once roamed, in triumph, the 
unbroken mazes of a forest, where now, the lofty spires of 
European cities glitter in the sun beam ; what forbids the 
hope that, as science and freedom continue to extend their 
sway, those unfortunate regions of the earth, which are still 
enveloped in darkness, will, in time, be also lighted by their 
rays ? May we not hope that England's late war with China, 
unjust as it was, has at last opened the portals of Asia, and 
brought her hundreds of millions of citizens into communion 
with the rest of the world ? While the opening of the Isth- 
mus of Suez, contemplated by the Egyptian Pasha, promises to 
bring closer together, and connect into one, the two great con- 
tinents of Europe and Asia. May we not hope that, as civi- 
lization spreads, and enlightened humanity sends abroad the 
missionaries of truth, the now unexplored regions of Africa 
will be peopled by mighty nations of freemen ; and that, in 
time the banner of freedom and equality will be raised in 
every clime of the globe ? And what, in fine, may we not 
expect, when universal freedom prevails ? We, from the 
heights we have attained, look down with pity on the igno- 
rance of ages which have past. But from how much loftier 
an elevation on the mount of knowledge, may future genera- 
tions survey, with the same feelings, the comparative dark- 
ness of the age in which we live ? As knowledge advances, 
we may well conclude that a time approaches, when civil, reli- 
gious and political liberty shall every where prevail, and 
universal education remove the fetters of ignorance from the 
human intellect, and set its every spring into life and motion ; 
when fierce dissensions and devastating wars shall cease, and 
the whole human family unite, in harmony and brotherly 
affection, to enlarge the boundaries of science, and increase 
the happiness of man ; when the whole surface of the globe 
shall be beautified by the works of industry, its most barren 
tracks teem with fruits, under the skilful culture of educated 
farmers, and majestic cities rise in now deserted wilds ; 
when countless high-ways shall traverse the land, flying 
aeronauts, with the speed of light, cut through the azure 
clouds, and in every quarter, from pole to pole, and conti- 



11 

tient to continent, on land and sea, the sound of the bellow- 
ing steam be heard : while grand discoveries, now undreamed 
of, shall then burst on man's enquiring gaze, and effect still 
more splendid transformations in his destinies than the com- 
pass of the mariner,'the types of the printer, or the agency of 
steam ; and new mechanical agencies, brought into play, 
shall (if not move the world, like the Archimedian lever,) 
suffice to mould all its elements at will, and levelling the 
barriers of Alpine mountains, and contracting the rolling 
waters of intervening oceans, bring the distant hemispheres 
more closely together, and unite in indissoluble bonds, all 
the inhabitants of earth. 

Nor should these be esteemed Utopian visions. They 
seem to be the consequences, which must of necessity arise, 
as the domain of intelligence extends. 

We, indeed, may expect in our lifetimes, to see astound- 
ing changes and brilliant developments. While those who 
now breathe in the eastern empires of the globe, may sink 
into the grave before the benign influences of civilization 
rescue their countries from ignorance and tyranny ; we have 
the happy fortune of living in a land, foremost pioneer of 
the age. In our favored clime, what changes too wonderful 
for a lifetime to effect ? Three score and ten years since, 
when a scanty population of two or three millions peopled 
the outskirts of our unbroken forests, and a few feeble and 
distinct colonies suffered under the oppression of a foreign 
yoke — who would not have been astounded, had the pros- 
pects hid beyond the veil of the future been disclosed to his 
view ? Who would have believed, had he then been told, 
that, in the space of one man's life, the two millions should 
swell into twenty, the little pennyless colonies vanquish the 
armies and navies of the greatest kingdoin upon earth, and a 
mighty nation thence arise, feared and respected by all the 
powers of the world, with vessels traversing every sea, and a 
people free and happy under the fairest structure of repre- 
sentative government, ever reared by man. Yet these thino-s 
have come to pass : and it may be our fortune to behold 
greater change than this. Even now in the vast West, pop- 
ulous cities arise, where savage beasts securely roamed, a 
half century ago ; already, canals and rail roads multiply, and 
schools and churches dot every portion of the land ; and al- 
ready, is our short history decked by a long list of famous 
warriors and sages. But we are still in our infancy. The 
far-stretching valley of the Mississippi, whose fertile bo- 
som might supply the world with sustenance, now sparsely 
inhabited, is yet to be thronged with millions of enlightened 
freemen ; the noble river is yet to whiten with the canvass 



that wafts the increasing products of its own alluvial banks ; 
and its sites are yet to be adorned with the clustered dwell- 
ings and towering domes of congregated nnan. The hidden 
treasures of our mountain chains iiave yet to be explored. 
The Atlantic and Pacific have yet to be united : and from 
ocean to ocean, from the lakes of the North, to the gulf which 
bounds us on the South, there is no region which will not 
in time be densely peopled, no spot not destined to be the 
scene of some soul-stirrins deed. 

In a country, like this, possessed of exhauslless resources, 
distantly removed from the distracting broils of the eastern 
continent, its remotest sections pervaded by the healthful 
stimulus of a representative government, and a generous 
emulation springing up between its rivalc ornmonwealths, it is 
safe to anticipate, that the intellect of man will exhibit an 
unexampled activity, the native powers of the mind itself 
be expanded, and in future time, philosophers and poets, 
historians and orators appear, whose brilliant light shall 
eclipse the lustrous glories of the mighty dead. No fond 
partiality blinds us, methinks when we survey with pride the 
condition and prospects of our country. Sound reason 
justifies the conclusion, and impartial statesmen across the 
Atlantic avow the opinion, that, as our population increases, 
and our wise systems of education diffuse intelligence, a more 
brilliant destiny awaits us than a gracious Providence has 
hitherto vouchsafed to man. 

But no farther will we pursue the beneficent results which 
must flow from the general diffusion of those principles 
which fired the soul of Jefferson. We have seen the rapid 
progress which they have made, and the momentous effects 
which they have already produced ; and have essayed to 
glance at some of the grander consequences which must at- 
tend their continued extension. His piercing eye, in the 
dark era of our colonial existence, clearly beheld, through 
overhanging clouds, the brilhant future of his country. He 
knew the nature of the germ which his labors contributed, 
to implant ; he divined the order of its growth, and what 
fruits to expect from its maturity. Hence, through life, one 
high ambition filled his soul. To advance freedom and 
knowledge, he toiled night and day. The last prayers, wiiich 
he breathed to heaven, were for their still farther extension; 
the last words, which quivered on his lips, were of joy at their 
progress ; and to crown the beautiful harmony of his career, 
on the memorable day, whicli gave innnortality to him, and 
independence to his country, his exulting soul departed ; in 
the grand jubilee of liberty, his congenial spirit winged aloft its 
triumphal flight, amid the rejoicings of a free and happy nation. 



13 

None of us may expect to witness the second centennary 
of his birth. But it will not pass unnoticed. When it next 
recurs, some orator will here proclaim his praises to an au- 
ditory now unborn, when the grave holds our mouldering 
bones. We meet to mark the first coming of this day with 
a.grateful tribute to the memory of Jefferson. But, though 
generation after generation pass away, though Egyptian py- 
ramids fall and be forgotten, in the lapse of time, and far dif- 
ferent scenes meet the eye, where now stand these walls ; 
yet its successive returns, so long as freedom and virtue en- 
dure, will be hailed with distinguished honor, and commem- 
orated with reverential gratitude. 

- He lived lor all mankind. No spot may claim him as its 
own. Yet, gentlemen, we have reason to regard his memory 
with peculiar veneration. We stand amid the mountain 
scenery which first greeted his infant vision, and shed its en- 
nobling influence on his character. Each morn, we see the 
sun ascend above that venerable mansion, where, exercising 
an unbounded hospitality, and fondly engaged in schemes of 
active benevolence, his old age reposed in the happy con- 
sciousness of a well spent life ; while the last rays of the sink- 
ing orb linger and play, before our vision, around the sum- 
mit of that lovely mount, which constitutes his tomb, grand- 
er and more enduring by far than stateliest mausoleums of 
human art. Here, where a boy, he traversed a forest-wild, 
his persevering labors have erected the classic walls of this 
University ; and to him, we are indebted, for the inestimable 
advantages which, within our Southern borders, are afforded 
us by so comprehensive an institution. Surely then, sur- 
rounded by such memorials of the man, and owing him a 
great debt of gratitude, his bright example should impress 
itself with peculiar vividness upon our hearts. Let us imi- 
tate him in unceasing endeavors to advance freedom and 
knowledge among men. With an intelligent and virtuous 
people, no storm can shake our security. It should, then, 
be our effort to spread abroad the lights of truth, and to ele- 
vate the character of our countrymen. It was their disin- 
terested zeal for the great mass of the people, which has 
given to Washington, Jefferson and Adams, the affectionate 
veneration of a grateful posterity. If ever their equals should 
arise, their glory will be due to a like pure ambition : and it 
is only by pursuing the same course, that we, gentlemen, 
may contribute our humble efforts to increase the happiness 
and exalt the dignity of man. 



LSi:. 



